Tuesday, December 9, 2014

I've learned, that while not discounting those big AHA life altering moments, it is in often in those smaller discoveries that I find my world enhanced. When I uncover that new tool, idea, product or person that has me smiling because of the impact they have succeeded in making on my life. While I am often resistant at first - if not downright New York skeptical, I am always on the lookout for what is going to improve how I live, love and work. That has held true in 2014. What follows is a list - in no particular order - of what has made it to the top of my list of best - and for me - life altering discoveries I made this year that make me want to do a happy dance.

Evernote - I didn’t get Evernote the first time I tried it. I had heard all the raves about how indispensable a tool it was, but from where I sat, it looked like more trouble than it was worth. So I gave up. Time passed and within the the space of two days this past June, three different people whose opinion I held great regard for tweeted about how they had given it a second chance and were now converts. That dovetailed with one of those moments when I was desperate to organize the multitude of information coming my way each day from all the different areas of my life. So I gave it another try. And guess what? I’m in love. I also really like the fact that while Evernote is set up to link on all your devices, it has not lost sight of good old-fashioned paper and pen and also offers a Moleskin calendar that can sync with the application.

Scrivener - This is one of those programs that I bought a couple of years ago because I heard it was the best way to organize for writers. I used it. But never religiously. I knew it had more power than I was accessing, but quite frankly I found it too time consuming to try to figure out. Then I heard about Scrivener Coach’s Learn Scrivener Fast and decided to make the investment. It changed how I viewed Scrivener and consequently changed how I write. It also just so happens to be where I am writing the draft of this blog.

Canva - Canva is and I quote “ amazingly simple graphic design.” I wasn’t resistant to Canva. I know the power of using visual in online content creation but I seemed to be doing just fine between the pictures I snap myself and those I could get from iStock photo. That was until iStock got too expensive - which is when Canva got my full attention. Once again - I am in love. Please note that the headline picture for this post was found and designed in Canva.

Podcasts - I’ve been enamored with podcasts and frequently threaten to start one of my own. To date the only thing that has come close are a few isolated tracks on Soundcloud. That said, I love listening to them and this year am listening more than ever. I always learn cool new stuff, am inspired and often find them as an incubator for my creativity. My latest favorites include: The James Altucher Show,Rainmaker.FM and On Being.

Audible - No doubt my former love of radio has something to do with why I have been enamored with sound and thus my affection for the aforementioned Podcasts. But listening to a book is not something I ever liked or wanted to do - until this year. I heard that Billy Crystal’s book, Still Fooling’ ‘Em was narrated by none other than Billy Crystal himself. I thought that might be fun. So I downloaded a copy and had another life-changing moment. I discovered it was as though I was listening to Billy doing stand-up. So I now have a new rule. If the book is a memoir and the memoir is narrated by the author, I will opt for the audio version.

The Do Not Disturb Button On My iPhone - This may have been there for a very long time. But you know how it goes with smartphones. They are loaded with all sorts of tricks that you just aren’t aware of - until something happens. In my case, I accidentally turned it on.It was in the process of trying to figure out why my phone had stopped ringing when people called that I discovered it existed. Now I am in love. It’s much more useful than just turning off the sound in that with Do Not Disturb you don’t get the text messages popping through or see the calls falling into voicemail. It creates this quiet when working or in the company of another living, breathing human that allows me to put more attention on what I am doing and who I am with.

Alice Hair - You may have caught my blog this past summer on The Huffington Post - What I Learned When I Broke Up With My Hairdresser. The details of how I came to discover Alice McCarney and her magical ways with a scissors and color can be found there. Suffice it to say, she has changed my life and reminded me there is great power when one is in the presence of a business owner who truly loves what they do and cares about their customers.

Greek words on Instagram - I have always regretted not learning to speak Greek as a kid, when it would have been easier to take on and there were still plenty of people around me who spoke the language. But with the exception of the Lord’s Prayer and Happy Easter, my Greek is pretty limited. But there is hope now that I have discovered Greek Words on Instagram. Each day there is a new word in Greek and in English and an audio to hear the pronunciation. Here is a recent favorite courtesy of Socrates.

That said, what new tools, ideas, products or people have brightened your world enough this year to make you want to do a happy dance?

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

I had only been in the radio business six months when the new owners of WXTU decided to flip the format to country music. The first song they played was Waylon Jennings, “Are You Ready For The Country.”I don’t remember much else about that day, except I knew I wasn't ready. I wanted to run out of that station on City Line Avenue in Bala Cynwyd and go hide. I couldn’t imagine that anyone was going to listen to country music in a market like Philadelphia. The station, as far as I could see, was doomed and my new career with it. It was unfathomable to me that I would be able to sell enough commercial time to cover my minuscule weekly draw, much less pay my rent. It all looked very bleak.

I wasn’t the only person who questioned this move. The trades were full of skeptics. There was nothing cool about country music if you lived in the Northeast in 1984. That was music people listened to who drove pick up trucks and who didn’t live in big cities.

The only person who truly believed it would be a success was the man who made the decision, the owner of the station, George Beasley.

As it turned out, George was right and everyone else was wrong. It also turned out to be one of the best things that could happen for my career.

I got to learn more in the five years I spent there than I ever would have selling a format that was more stable and mainstream. I learned - about radio, about advertising, about selling, about growing a business from the ground up - enough to fill a book. And here’s the real bonus that I have only understood in hindsight. I was also learning valuable lessons in digital marketing.

Yes - you read that right. There was no privatized Internet in the eighties. We were still living in an analog world complete with pay phones and assistants who took handwritten messages on paper that read “While You Were Out.”

Yet I was learning the basic tenets of digital marketing.I just didn’t know it yet.

Let me explain.

1- The Importance of a Tribe. We didn’t call them tribes in 1984. We called them listeners. If our listeners liked what we served we had a product. And if they were passionate about that product we had a following that would translate into ratings which meant advertising dollars which resulted in a business.

My skeptical self learned within a few months that country music radio fans are no ordinary fans. They are fiercely loyal and passionate about the music and the artists. They supported our advertisers because the advertisers supported their music. They validated our product. Which brings me to the second lesson I learned.

2- Niche markets can create successful and viable businesses.WXTU lived on the tail of what Chris Anderson would later coin long tail marketing. Most broadcasters at that time were looking to deliver a format that appealed to the masses, one that would land them as a Top 5 station simply because very few radio media buys ever included more than five stations on it. Being at the top of the list – or the head of the tail - was the fastest way to make the most money.What I learned from WXTU was that a strong, niche product with a loyal tribe might not make the most money - but it was clearly a viable business - especially when that tribe was engaged.

3- The Importance of an Engaged Customer. There are many in the radio business today who tout terrestrial radio as being the original “social media.” There is validity to that statement. The best on-air radio personalities have always enrolled listeners in personal conversations and promoted engagement in station contests and events. Before the Internet, the telephone and write-ins enabled that interaction.

Country music fans have always been more engaged than the average radio listener. They spent more time with the station. This was not just music they liked to listen to - this was a radio station they loved feeling connected to.

That kind of engaged tribe is what every digital marketer seeks today.

Even though WXTU presented a viable, niche format, its reach was not enough to be a top five contender - which meant ratings taken at face value would never get us on an agency buy.

So we learned to look for the story within the data – which in this case was that our listeners stayed with us for longer periods of time and thus were more actively engaged. That active engagement meant they were more likely to be listening when a commercial did air. In other words they were not tuning out - a challenge that is compounded in today’s digital environment with its deluge of choices.

5- Be Agile. Radio stations are essentially selling air. Which means there is no shelf life for your product. If that morning drive spot is not sold today, you can’t add it on tomorrow and sell it then. So you learn to move fast and be agile. If something in the news happened that warranted a change in the playlist - just like that - within minutes - the music could change. If someone wanted to get a commercial on that afternoon we could make it happen. Agility wasn’t an option when you’re selling a station that is not a “must” buy, it’s just a way of being.

The ability to be agile, to be able to move quickly at the same time we are thinking things through is necessary in the world of real-time marketing. I’m fortunate to have learned that long before it became trendy.

6- Dare to be Different. The tendency of most business is to chase the trends. To look for where you can make the most money in the shortest amount of time and to choose the safest route to make that happen. George Beasley thought otherwise. He saw a hole in the market, believed he could make it work, and followed his instincts - despite the naysayers. He wasn’t afraid to fail. And as it turns out he didn’t. The station, while recently traded to CBS, is still alive and kicking in 2014.

I learned a lot selling country music radio in the eighties – and for the record I learned to like country music!

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Improving your online digital profile is not as complicated as most people think it is. In fact, it starts with this very simple exercise I offer in my YOUR DIGITAL YOU workshops.I ask people to Google their name.I know it sounds crazy, but I am always astounded by the number of people who tell me they have never done this before.So go ahead.Try it now.Click this link and type in your name.The second part of the exercise is to answer questions like these:

Do you like what you found?

Is the information recent or outdated?

Are the results telling the story of who you are as a brand?

We go a bit more in-depth in the workshop, but you get the gist. If it's all matching up to the picture you want to paint then give yourself a big round of applause.It's possible that it all happened by accident, but the odds are it's because you have been putting attention on your online self.You get that people such as....

Potential clients

Prospective employers

The referral you just got through your business partner

The cute guy you gave your card to at your college roommates birthday party

......are Googling your name to find out more. You're keeping up with life in the age of digital. Of course if you are like most people, you have not been giving it any real consideration. In which case I suggest, if you are in NYC on November 13 you sign up for my last in person YOUR DIGITAL YOU - the blueprint - the workshop designed to improve your digital profile of 2014. If you can't make that date - be sure to sign up to follow this blog or my newsletter to stay informed of future workshops in 2015.Whatever you choose to do - put some attention on this! Your online you deserves consideration as much as your in-person you does.YOUR DIGITAL YOU can be brought in-house to your business or organization and customized for your industry. For more information on how that works email me today.

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

The other day a friend of mine told me she had something she needed to tell me. I tensed up. She sounded serious enough to have me worried that something was really wrong.

“I’m addicted to social media. I have not said this out loud before, but its true. Addicted. In a bad way.”

Because I am a good friend, I did what good friends do.

I listened.

I didn’t judge.

Besides, who am I to judge? I question my own addiction to Social Networks most every day. I have to be there. I’m a marketer. I’m an author. I’m a businesswoman. So part of my time is justified for work. But all of it? If I tell the truth - the honest truth - the whole truth - and nothing but the truth - the answer is no.

I am as guilty as the next person of scrolling a Facebook feed aimlessly in avoidance of doing work that might matter, of comparing myself to Twitter posts of people I don’t know, of looking to see who viewed my LinkedIN profile and didn’t reach out and then being so exhausted I need a nap after which I wonder why nothing is getting done.

The question becomes - is that a true addiction?The answer is - I’m not sure - but it might be.

My friend told me she had spent two hours on social media that morning. That made me feel better. While there is no doubt I spend at least that much time in the course of the day social networking, I generally don’t do it contiguously. Despite the fact that according to eMarketer we are both above the US daily average of 1 hour and 7 minutes I decided if we both had a borderline addiction, maybe mine wasn’t as bad as hers.

In any case, being the self-proclaimed Goddess of time management that I am, I offered my advice.

Given her business - cold turkey is not an option. But putting oneself on a restricted diet is.

Which is how I have managed other similar addictions I have to things like shoes - which I am currently limited to buying only when on sale and no more than two new pairs a season.

Here’s what I told her:#1 Limit your social media intake to a half hour, 3x a day. My days in radio and television have taught me to always live life in dayparts so I suggested morning, midday and afternoon drivetime - the theory being that different people engage at different times in the day. #2 Use a timer. No surprises here. Timers are my thing. Especially the old-fashioned kind that make an audible sound. For me it makes the time I’ve allowed seem longer. Plus it offers accountability.#3 Turn off the alerts. On the phone, the iPad, the Desktop. There is no reason that everytime something happens in your networks you need to know that second. Just because someone liked the picture you posted of yourself in the seventh grade on #ThrowbackThursday - you don’t need to know that very second - much less respond. It’s distracting. It will suck you right back into your addiction and let’s face it - it’s just not that important!

She liked the idea. I felt like a good friend.Everyone was happy.

Then the oddest thing happened. As soon as we were done our conversation I got back on my computer and in less time than it took you to read this far I was on Twitter star gazing until my own addiction hit me squarely between the eyes.

So I did what I had to. I listened to my own advice and have put myself on a restricted diet. If you notice otherwise, it’s a sign I’ve gone off the wagon.

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

The truth is I never can’t write. I don’t want to write. I resist writing. I come up with a thousand and one other things I think are more important for me to finish than writing - even though the truth is for anyone like myself who calls themselves a writer first - before anything else - there is nothing more important than writing. It’s the fuel that drives the engine for everything else.

Still - there are moments when I allow myself to play my game and say I can’t write.

It happened the other week. In fact, if you follow this blog regularly you might have noticed the absence of new material. You might have even stopped following me because in the world of content marketing, not offering fresh content consistently is not a smart thing to do.

But I digress. Which is pretty much why I wasn’t getting much writing done.

But I was thinking about all the things I might write if only I could.

Then I did something I have not done in a while. I read a book about writing - without a doubt one of the best books I’ve read on writing. Ever.And I’ve read a lot of books on writing. Ironically, it’s not just for writers like me who are writers before everything else. It’s for everybody. Because - as it is so aptly titled, Everybody Writes - Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content.

It’s smart, it’s witty, it offers good, useful advice, a ton of great resources and it’s easy to read. All the hallmarks for creating great content in a digital world. The author, Ann Handley who is also the Chief Content Officer at Marketing Profs, shows us how it's done by walking the walk.

It’s also inspiring.It helped me to jumpstart my writing again and remember a few of the things I seemed to have forgotten that had gotten me to that can’t write place.

Everybody Writes has earned its official spot on my recommended reading list - not quite as coveted as The New York Times - but a spot nonetheless !

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

I'm not worried about Ebola. Concerned - yes. The spread of Ebola in West Africa is serious, it deserves attention and it must be contained.

But to worry about it - to allow myself to get caught up in the hysteria that has been marketed so effectively across every level of the media would be a waste of my energy.

My calm is not easy to maintain. Short of hiding out in a cave on a remote island with no Internet connection, it’s hard to escape the 24/7 news cycle intent on trying to convince me there is no danger greater to my life at this moment than Ebola. Valiant as their efforts might be - they have not succeeded.

However they have brought up other concerns - that I admit do have me worrying. Not about Ebola. But what the hysteria surrounding it says about our society. I started to keep a list of my worries - my theory being if I wrote them down they would lose some of their energy.

But instead, the list kept growing. That’s what worry can do. It can stop you from getting anything else done - especially the important stuff - for instance writing a blog.

That’s when I decided the list was a blog. So here it is - my list of what the hysteria surrounding Ebola has me worried about: 1. Our 24-hour newscycle, complete with headlines intentionally designed to market hysteria - all in the name of gaining audience share so they can make more money.2. Our distorted definition of “breaking news” which used to mean something really big happened - like when a plane hit the World Trade Center.3. The dwindling number of reporters who deserve to be called journalists. 4. People who cite Wikipedia and Fox News as their credible source.5. Sound bites taken out of context and used to promote stories that completely distort the truth.6. People who believe those sound bites.7. The speed at which inaccurate information can now spread, which is actually faster than Ebola.8. That we have lost our ability to think for ourselves and to recognize fact from conjecture. 9. Our lack of leaders - on both sides of the fence - top to bottom.10. People who point fingers instead of coming up with solutions.11. People who don’t value their right to vote and won’t turn out for the Mid-term Elections because they are too worried about catching Ebola.12. That we have no Surgeon General. 13. Hatred and intolerance of people different than ourselves.14. People who think we should seal our borders to contain the problem instead of help the people who are in real danger - in West Africa.15. The ease with which one can purchase a semi-automatic weapon in the US, which will kill many more than the Ebola virus, and the difficulty there is getting medicine to aide those who have contracted the virus.16. A pharmaceutical industry that only researches medicine for diseases when it will make them money. 17. Parabens, mineral oils, artificial parfums and genetically modified foods that we come in contact with every day and whose dangers never get the air time Ebola does. 18. The disrespect allowed towards our President. (like him or not - he is still the President of the United States)19.Being run over by an out of control bike rider in Manhattan - which is also more likely to happen than coming into contact with the virus. 20. That the importance of voting in the Mid-Term Elections will never be marketed as well as the hysteria around Ebola.

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

I’ve always been style conscious. It’s the way my mama raised me. I combed fashion magazines and browsed through boutiques from an early age, not just searching for bargains, but for ideas on how to put outfits together. For me, fashion is an artistic expression of who I am, in that moment, for that occasion.

I’ve had periods in my life where my style fit a certain category - classic, edgy, romantic, conservative or trendy - until the day I realized I didn't fit just one label and that my style was a unique and authentic expression of who I am - a part of the statement I make about my personal brand.

So it's no wonder that I approach my social network interactions with the same consideration.

So I ask you - do any of these styles sound like you or someone you know?

The Traditionalist - They engage - but not too much. They share without comment so we don't really know what they think - but what they share tends to be useful. They know they have to have some digital presence but secretly wish this social networking thing would all go away. They definitely put thought behind their posts - perhaps at times, too much.

The Lurker - The Lurker has a social profile, most likely limited to Facebook to stay connected to family and friends and LinkedIn for professional reasons - but they don’t engage. They observe. They know everything every one of their friends does online. They'll tell you at a cocktail party how they read all your blogs and how much they enjoy them but never once liked or shared any. They're the person who comes to the dance but never dances.

The Trendsetter - The Trendsetter is not afraid to speak their mind. They share their own ideas and they share others ideas. They seek to influence. They look to see what is trending on Twitter but they also harbor a deep seated desire that one day a hashtag they create will trend worldwide.

The Spewer - This is the person that any little thing that pops into their heads they feel obligated to share - like what they had for breakfast that morning or what they think of that car that just cut them off. There is no thought nor any concern for how something might land or what the repercussions might be. They tend to shoot from their hip which appears to be connected 24/7 to their Facebook feed. It’s never once crossed their mind that what they are saying now lives for eternity on the Internet.

The Erratic - You might at first glance confuse the Erratic with the Spewer. This is because while there is no consistency in their social presence, when they do decide to interact they try to make up for lost time by posting a dozen links, one after the other, without coming up for air and usually unrelated to each other. There might be something really terrific in there they are sharing - but you'll never find it because it is resembling the Spewer, who you stopped paying attention to a long time ago.

The Attention-Getter - Like the Spewer it might at first glance seem as if there was absolutely no thought whatsoever in that seemingly inconsiderate or irreverent comment they just posted or outlandish picture they put up on Instagram - but the truth is - there probably was. Think Miley Cyrus. Her social network interactions may seem to have occurred in a moment of haste, but my personal belief is that they are part of a grander marketing plan created with intention.

The Non-Responder - They post. Constantly. All day long. They may even have a huge following - in the hundreds of thousands. But they never acknowledge a comment. They want to be heard. But they are not interested in listening. They seem to not understand that what has made social networking grow exponentially is that it is about engagement and conversation - not simply pushing messages. Think the big corporation who is using new digital tools and old marketing methods.

The Eclectic - The Eclectic mixes it all up. They interact differently on different social networks. They are more likely to press pause and think before hitting publish. They understand that engaging as a two-way street is what makes social networking so powerful. They think. They understand their personal brand now lives online - forever and that they are in a position to take control. They know their digital selves might very well be the first impression someone has of them and that there is no delete button on the Internet.

This is where I strive to live.

But no matter which style category I fall into on a particular day, the one constant is that in the same manner that I pause to check the weather before I choose the shoes I wear, I take a moment to think before I post.

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

I'm not a yeller. Nor would you expect a slew of four letter expletives to fall from my mouth. Therapy and lots of personal transformational work has quelled the bursts of emotional ranting that were common in my younger years. In other words I’ve learned to press pause before I open my mouth.

The exception to all this is when I drive. When I get behind the wheel of a car, all bets are off. My fuse is short. My calm and grounded persona disappears and my emotions flare. I have less than nice things to say about every car and driver that cuts me off, changes lanes without signaling and makes a sudden stop without warning.

It's as though an alien power takes over my body and I flip back and forth between the woman who practices meditation and the one that emerges like the Loch Ness Monster when another driver does something stupid.

I warn people who have never driven with me. But sometimes I forget.

In which case I explain after the fact, apologizing profusely until the color returns to their face, their body starts to relax again, and they stop gripping the door handle.

While this is a part of what I like to call my multifaceted persona, it is not what I consider my best and most engaging side. Which is why I won't be tweeting an episode anytime soon. There will be no requests for my passenger to video the outburst and post it on Facebook or Instagram. Why then, you might ask, am I even bringing it up here?

To make my point. Not every aspect of who we are, where we go and what we do needs to be shared.

I might not have control over the person I become when driving, but I do have control over what I choose to share on social media. When deciding what is share worthy these are the questions I like to ask myself:

Is it useful?

Is it relevant?

Is it representative of whom I am as a brand?

Does it educate,entertain, inspire and/or convince?

Is this something I wouldn't mind seeing on a billboard?

The person I become when driving would never make the cut - unless I am using it to illustrate a point - which in this case is that not everything is worth sharing.

Thursday, August 28, 2014

When I was still trying to figure out this next phase of my life I went to a book launch by a man I had never heard of before. The book was called World Wide Rave and the author was someone named David Meerman Scott.

I was quite taken with David, his story and his perspective on what he referred to as the new rules of Marketing and PR. He had worked for large corporations and had been fired from them. So we had a lot in common.

I started to follow him on the social networks and became a regular reader of his blog. I learned a lot from David. He has always impressed me as one of the few marketing gurus out there who actually walks the walk. He doesn't just preach engagement and sharing, he practices it. He has a no gobbledygook rule that I have adopted. To say his thinking helped to form my own on how to use digital tools to brand and sell is an understatement.

In one of those synchronistic twists of fate that first meeting was at the Kimmel Center at NYU - several years before I joined the adjunct faculty. When I first started to teach Digital Marketing and was in search of a textbook, the only thing that I found that could come close to being a comprehensive overview of what marketing in a digital world looked like was his book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR.

That was a year ago in September. I remember hanging up the phone and trying not to get too attached to whether that interview would actually make it in the final draft. Instead I exercised extreme gratitude that a handful of years after first meeting someone whose work impressed me so, my story might even be considered for one of his books.

When I started this part of my journey back in 2008 I had no idea where I was going. What I've discovered along the way is that as long as you're willing to put one foot in front of the other and keep yourself open, you will meet the people you need to meet, you'll learn what you need to know and you will never cease to be amazed at the synchronicity of it all and the delightful surprises that will occur.

Full Disclosure

One Woman’s Eye is a blog written, edited and maintained by Joanne Tombrakos. For questions about this blog please contact joanne@joannetombrakos.com

This blog accepts forms of compensation including but not limited to advertising and product or service links. Which basically means if Joanne recommends a book and you follow the link and buy it she may receive compensation for that purchase. While compensation may influence advertising content, links or in a rare case post topics it will never influence Joanne’s opinion to which she holds the sole copyright.